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Procmail
View on Wikipediafrom Wikipedia
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2023) |
| procmail | |
|---|---|
| Original author | Stephen R. van den Berg |
| Developer | Philip A. Guenther |
| Initial release | December 7, 1990 |
| Stable release | 3.24
/ March 2, 2022 |
| Repository | |
| Operating system | Any Unix-like |
| Platform | Cross-platform |
| Type | Mail filter |
| License | GPL or Artistic License |
| Website | www |
procmail is an email server software component — specifically, a message delivery agent (MDA). It was one of the earliest mail filter programs. It is typically used in Unix-like mail systems, using the mbox and Maildir storage formats.
procmail was first developed in 1990, by Stephen R. van den Berg.[1] Philip Guenther took over maintainership for a number of years, but relinquished the role in 2014.[2] The software remained unmaintained for several years, and was believed to be defunct.[3] In 2020 May, Stephen van den Berg resumed maintenance again.[4] The program has since seen multiple releases and bug-fixes.
Uses
[edit]The most common use case for procmail is to filter mail into different mailboxes, based on criteria such as sender address, subject keywords, and/or mailing list address.[5][6]
Another use is to let procmail call an external spam filter program, such as SpamAssassin. This method can allow for spam to be filtered or deleted.
The procmail developers have built a mailing list manager called SmartList on top of procmail.
Procmail is an early example of a mail filtering tool and language. It is a data-driven programming language, similar to earlier line-oriented languages such as sed and AWK.
Operation
[edit]procmail reads mail messages given to it on standard input, delivering or otherwise dispositioning each one. procmail is typically not invoked directly by the user. Rather, some other mail program will call upon procmail to deliver a message according to the user's wishes. Message transfer agents (MTAs), such as Sendmail or Postfix), can be configured to use procmail to deliver all mail. A mail retrieval agent such as fetchmail can invoke procmail as needed. The companion tool formail allows procmail to be applied to mail already in a mailbox.
procmail's behavior is controlled by a config file (by default, .procmailrc in the user's home directory) containing one or more recipes, read in order. Each recipe consists of a mode, zero or more conditions, and an action.
Conditions are usually extended regular expressions, although there are other forms. A recipe's action is taken only if all the conditions match (logical AND). If no conditions is given, the recipe is unconditional and the action always runs.
The action specifies what is to be done with the message, such as deliver it to a particular mailbox, or discard it. A recipe and its action can be delivering or non-delivering. Processing of a given message stops with the first delivering recipe (unless the recipe's mode flag specifies otherwise).
Example
[edit]A simple .procmailrc config file might look like this:
MAILDIR=$HOME/mail DEFAULT=$MAILDIR/inbox :0: * ^List-Id: .*<foo-announce@lists.example.com> foo-announce
The above routes mail from a hypothetical mailing list to a separate mailbox called foo-announce, while delivering all other mail to the inbox mailbox, both located under the $HOME/mail/ directory.
Criticism
[edit]By default, procmail will "bounce" undeliverable mail back to the sender, or discard it entirely. A mistake in the config file can result in all mail being rejected or discarded.
The configuration file format is sometimes regarded as cryptic.
procmail is not well-suited for processing mail involving Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME). It cannot decode or recognize MIME-specific headers or international characters.
For approximately ten years, procmail was not maintained, and multiple serious security vulnerabilities[7] were discovered in the intervening time span[3] (since fixed).
See also
[edit]
Mail architecture
[edit]- Message transfer agent
- Message delivery agent
- Mail retrieval agent
- Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
Similar programs and technologies
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "README". 2022-03-02. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
Copyright (c) 1990-2022, S.R. van den Berg, The Netherlands. Copyright (c) 1997-2005, Philip Guenther, The United States of America.
- ^ Gunther, Philip (2014-11-18). "please remove the procmail port". ports@ (Mailing list). OpenBSD. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
- ^ a b Willis, Nathan (24 November 2010). "Reports of procmail's death are not terribly exaggerated". Linux Weekly News. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
- ^ Stephen R. van den Berg (2022-03-02). "#1006633: procmail is unmaintained upstream". Retrieved 2022-04-26.
As of May 2020, the dormant state of procmail upstream maintenance has been changed back to active. As Santiago Vila can attest to, I have taken up active maintenance of procmail again since the past two years ...
- ^ Wells, Nicholas; Jang, Michael (3 October 2018). Guide to Linux Installation and Administration. Cengage Learning EMEA. ISBN 9780619000974 – via Google Books.
- ^ Levine, John (24 March 2004). qmail: Managing Unix-Based Mail Systems. O'Reilly Media, Inc. ISBN 9780596552121 – via Google Books.
- ^ "CVEdetails: Procmail Vulnerabilities". CVEdetails.com. 2018-02-03. Retrieved 2020-05-02.
Further reading
[edit]- McCarthy, Martin (November 2001). The Procmail Companion. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0201737905.
External links
[edit]- "GitHub - BuGlessRB/procmail: The mail sorting program". — Current source code repository and distribution point
- "Procmail Homepage". Archived from the original on 2015-10-13. — Procmail homepage, as it appeared when it was working
- "Procmail Home - MarkMail - Community libraries". — Searchable archives of the procmail mailing list
Procmail
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
Procmail is an autonomous mail delivery agent (MDA) for Unix-like operating systems, designed to filter, sort, and deliver incoming email messages based on user-defined recipes specified in configuration files such as
This condition searches the message header for the sender pattern and appends matching emails to the specified file.[19][25]
Forwarding newsletters based on subject lines is another basic application. To forward emails with subjects containing "newsletter" to an alternative address while keeping a copy in the inbox, employ this recipe:
The "c" flag ensures the message continues to the next recipe or default delivery after forwarding.[19][18]
Discarding obvious spam by checking for keywords in the body provides a simple way to reduce clutter. For example, to delete emails containing "viagra" in the body, use:
The "B" flag directs the condition to scan the message body, and directing output to "/dev/null" effectively discards the mail.[25][18]
To test these rules safely in a non-production environment, invoke procmail with the "-m" flag, which processes mail as a filter without delivering it to the system mailbox. This allows verification using sample emails piped into procmail, such as
Here, the initial score of -5 is adjusted, such as -2 for a trusted sender in the From header, +10 for common attachment types indicating potential malware, and +5 for keywords in the subject. If the total score reaches or surpasses zero, the message is delivered to the "junk" folder, with logging for audit. This method integrates seamlessly with other recipes, allowing low-scoring mail to proceed to delivery.[17][26]
Conditions exclude daemon-generated mail (e.g., bounces) and self-replies via the X-Loop header, while verifying the To field targets the user. The lockfile "vacation.lock" prevents concurrent executions from duplicating replies. Formail checks a 8192-byte cache of recent senders; if new, it generates a reply header from the original and pipes it along with the body from vacation.msg to sendmail for delivery, appending the X-Loop header to halt propagation. This ensures responses are sent only for non-list mail, maintaining etiquette in threaded discussions.[19][26]
The condition matches the list address in the To header. Formail adds bulk-precedence and list-identifying headers to aid downstream filtering. Sendmail then distributes the modified message to addresses in subscribers.txt (one per line, e.g., [email protected]). The 'c' flag copies the original to local delivery if needed, while the external recipient expansion handles dynamic lists without hardcoding. Lockfiles can be added for file access safety in high-volume setups.[26][18]
.procmailrc.[1] It processes mail received via standard input, separating headers from the body, and can forward, store, or execute actions on messages matching specified conditions, making it a versatile tool for email management.[1] Originally developed as a lightweight and efficient alternative to traditional mail handlers, procmail is invoked through mechanisms like .forward files or integration with mail transfer agents (MTAs) such as Sendmail, and it supports local mail delivery while minimizing system resource usage.[2]
Developed initially by Stephen R. van den Berg in 1990, procmail's first release (v1.00) appeared on December 7, 1990, with significant milestones including v2.00 in 1991 and v3.00 in 1994, which introduced advanced features like nested recipes.[3] Philip Guenther later joined as a key contributor and maintainer, enhancing security and compatibility in subsequent versions.[4] After a period of unmaintenance, the original author resumed development in May 2020, with the tool reaching version 3.24 in March 2022 as the latest release as of 2025, focusing on stability and security fixes through community efforts despite its mature status.[4][5]
Key features of procmail include support for regular expression matching, scoring mechanisms for conditional processing, locking to prevent race conditions, and integration with tools like SpamAssassin for spam filtering.[1] It enables users to create mailing lists, autoresponders, and custom mail servers, and is widely used in environments requiring robust, scriptable email handling without heavy dependencies.[2] While alternatives like Sieve have gained popularity, procmail's backward compatibility and power continue to make it a staple in legacy and specialized Unix mail systems.[4]
History and Development
Origins
Procmail was developed by Stephen R. van den Berg in 1990 as a personal solution for filtering and processing email on Unix-like systems.[6] Originally created to address the limitations of standard mail transfer agents (MTAs) such as sendmail, which offered only basic delivery options, procmail aimed to enable more sophisticated, automated handling of incoming mail. The initial version, released in December 1990, introduced a rule-based system that allowed users to sort, forward, and process messages based on headers, content, and other criteria without needing advanced programming skills.[7] The tool's design emphasized flexibility and ease of use, permitting non-programmers to define processing rules—known as recipes—through simple conditional statements and actions.[8] This approach made procmail particularly appealing for individual users managing personal email accounts on shared Unix systems, where manual sorting became increasingly burdensome amid rising email volumes in the early 1990s. As a local mail delivery agent (MDA), it integrated seamlessly with existing MTAs to intercept and route mail locally. Early adoption occurred primarily within academic and open-source communities, where Unix was prevalent and email usage surged due to expanding internet connectivity.[9] Distributed via Usenet groups like comp.sources.misc starting around 1991, procmail quickly gained traction among system administrators and researchers seeking to automate spam filtering, mailing list management, and message archiving.[10] Its open-source nature under a permissive license facilitated widespread experimentation and integration into custom email workflows during the decade.[7]Evolution and Maintenance
Procmail was initially created in 1990 by Stephen R. van den Berg as a mail filtering tool. In the fall of 1998, van den Berg handed over maintainership to Philip Guenther, who led development through version 3.22.[3][7] Development progressed through multiple versions, culminating in the release of version 3.22 on September 10, 2001, which served as the last official stable release under maintainer Philip Guenther and addressed regression bugs from prior releases, such as compilation issues with K&R compilers and maildir delivery problems.[3][11] After 2001, procmail entered a period of dormancy lasting until around 2010, characterized by sporadic bug reports submitted to maintainers but no further upstream development or new official releases.[11] Community involvement has since sustained the project through forks and patches. A notable example is the BuGlessRB fork, which produced version 3.24 in March 2022 to resolve minor compatibility issues, including fixes for modern compilers and environment variables.[4][12] As of 2025, procmail remains included in modern Linux distributions, such as Debian's version 3.24+really3.22-5 (a patched variant of 3.22) and Arch Linux via the AUR, though packaging notes and documentation warn of its unmaintained upstream status and recommend alternatives for new deployments.[13][14] Historical records, including the procmail.HISTORY snapshot file, provide detailed logs of bug fixes and changes through version 3.22.[3]Features
Core Functionality
Procmail operates as a local mail delivery agent (MDA) that processes incoming email messages, typically invoked by mail transfer agents (MTAs) such as Sendmail or Postfix when mail arrives in the spool.[1][2][15] It receives the message via standard input and examines user-defined rules in a configuration file, usually~/.procmailrc, to determine the appropriate action.[1]
The primary functions of procmail include filtering incoming mail based on header content, subject lines, or body keywords; sorting messages into specific folders; forwarding them to other addresses; or discarding unwanted mail.[1][2] These operations enable automated organization of email without manual intervention, enhancing efficiency for users handling high volumes of correspondence.[16] For instance, rules can direct newsletters to a dedicated folder or route spam to a null device.[1]
To ensure reliable delivery, procmail employs lockfiles that prevent race conditions when multiple processes attempt to write to the same shared mailbox simultaneously.[1] These locks, such as /var/spool/mail/$LOGNAME.lock for the system mailbox, are created atomically and held until the delivery completes, avoiding data corruption in multi-user environments.[1][2]
If no matching rules are found in the configuration file or if processing reaches the end without an action, procmail defaults to delivering the message to the user's standard mailbox, typically $HOME/[Mail](/page/Mail) or /var/spool/[mail](/page/Mail)/$LOGNAME.[1][2] For troubleshooting, procmail supports verbose logging through the VERBOSE variable, which outputs detailed diagnostic information to a log file, aiding in the identification of rule mismatches or delivery issues.[1][2]
Advanced Capabilities
Procmail's scoring system enables nuanced filtering by assigning weights to conditions, allowing messages to accumulate points based on multiple criteria before determining delivery actions. Each condition in a recipe can include a weight w and exponent x in the formatw^x condition, where the score contribution grows or diminishes depending on the number of matches; for instance, a condition like +1^1 ^From:.*friend adds 1 point per matching line in the header, while -5^0 spam-indicator deducts 5 points for any occurrence of a spam keyword without further scaling. The total score for a recipe is the sum of all condition contributions, and the recipe only matches if the final score exceeds zero, as stored in the $= environment variable; this approach supports complex prioritization, such as boosting scores for trusted senders (+2000 for specific "From:" headers) while penalizing large attachments or suspicious subjects.[17]
Piping actions extend procmail's capabilities by routing messages to external programs or scripts for advanced processing, initiated by an action line starting with |. For example, mail matching certain patterns can be piped to a virus scanner like | /usr/local/bin/clamav-scan, where the f flag treats the pipe as a filter to modify the message before further delivery, and the w flag waits for the program's exit code to influence subsequent actions. This mechanism also facilitates auto-replies by piping to scripts that generate responses, such as forwarding modified content to a reply generator, enabling integrations like content transformation or external analysis without altering procmail's core delivery role.[18]
Procmail supports mailing list management through conditional forwarding recipes that distribute messages based on header patterns, effectively creating simple list servers. Recipes can use conditions like * ^TO_listname to match "To:" or "Cc:" headers, followed by a forwarding action ! list@domain, which sends the message to designated recipients while preserving the original envelope; for digests, piping to formail splits multi-message inputs for redistribution. This conditional logic allows server-like behavior, such as subscribing users by forwarding only to those matching subscriber lists stored in files, without requiring dedicated list software.[19]
For handling MIME attachments and body content, procmail provides flags like B to search or feed only the message body to conditions and actions, bypassing headers for targeted analysis. Although procmail does not natively decode MIME structures, it enables comprehensive filtering by piping the body to external tools, such as | mimencode -u to unquote encoded text or ripmime for attachment extraction, allowing rules to detect and process elements like quoted-printable content or binary parts based on "Content-Type:" headers. This integration supports body-based scoring or actions, such as analyzing text for keywords while ignoring attachments, to refine filtering beyond header-only matches.[18]
Configuration and Operation
Setup and Invocation
Procmail operates on Unix-like operating systems, such as Linux distributions and BSD variants, where it functions as a mail delivery agent (MDA). As of 2025, it remains available through standard package managers, including apt for Debian and Ubuntu-based systems and dnf for Fedora and related distributions.[20][21] Installation is typically performed via the distribution's package manager for simplicity and integration. On Debian-based systems, the commandsudo apt install procmail retrieves and installs the binary along with necessary dependencies. Similarly, on Fedora, sudo dnf install procmail accomplishes this. For environments without pre-built packages, procmail can be compiled from source by downloading the tarball from the official repository, applying any required patches for compatibility, and executing make followed by make install as root; this process requires a C compiler like gcc and optional libraries such as libnsl for network support.[21][22][22]
After installation, integration with a mail transfer agent (MTA) like Postfix or Sendmail is essential to route incoming mail through procmail. For Postfix, edit /etc/postfix/main.cf to set mailbox_command = /usr/bin/procmail -a "$EXTENSION" and reload the service with postfix reload; this designates procmail as the local MDA for user mailboxes. With Sendmail, configure delivery by adding entries to /etc/aliases (e.g., username: "|/usr/bin/procmail") and running newaliases to update the alias database, or use per-user .forward files in home directories pointing to procmail. These setups ensure mail is processed before final delivery to spool or Maildir formats.[23][2]
Procmail is invoked either automatically by the MTA during mail delivery or manually from the command line for testing. The basic syntax is procmail [options] [rcfile], where options include -d recipient to deliver mail explicitly to a specified user (requiring root privileges) and -m to run in mail filter mode without delivery, useful for dry runs. Environment variables influence behavior, such as MAILDIR set to an absolute path like $HOME/[Mail](/page/Mail) for Maildir delivery or ORGMAIL pointing to the system mailbox like /var/spool/mail/$LOGNAME. The configuration file .procmailrc is placed in the user's home directory ($HOME/.procmailrc), must be owned by the user or root, and secured with permissions 0600 (readable and writable only by the owner) to prevent unauthorized access; a global /etc/procmailrc can be used system-wide but also requires root execution. Recipes within .procmailrc define filtering logic, but setup focuses on ensuring proper invocation paths.[1][1][1]
Recipe Structure
Procmail recipes define rules for processing incoming mail messages and follow a structured format consisting of a colon-prefixed header line, optional condition lines, and a single action line.[24] The header line begins with:0 followed by optional flags and an optional local lockfile specification in the form :0 [flags] [ : [locallockfile] ].[24] Condition lines, if present, start with an asterisk (*) and specify matching criteria against the message headers or body, while the action line dictates what to do if conditions are met, such as forwarding, piping to a program, or saving to a file.[24] If no conditions are specified, the recipe matches every message unconditionally.[24]
Flags modify the behavior of a recipe and are single-letter options placed after the :0. Common flags include c for carbon copy, which allows the message to continue to subsequent recipes after processing; w to wait for the exit code of an external program invoked in the action; and A to make the action dependent on whether a previous recipe matched.[24] The full set of flags encompasses H for header-only matching, B for body matching, A and a for action dependencies, E and e for environment variable handling, D for case-sensitive matching, f for treating the action as a filter, c for copying, w and W for waiting on programs, i for ignoring write errors, and r for raw mode.[24] These flags control aspects like parsing scope, flow continuation, and error handling without altering the core syntax.[24]
Conditions evaluate whether a recipe applies to a message and use extended regular expressions (egrep syntax) for pattern matching on headers or body content, depending on flags like H or B.[24] Multiple conditions within a recipe are logically ANDed, meaning all must match for the recipe to trigger; to achieve OR logic, a single condition can use regex alternation (|) or separate recipes can be employed.[24] Condition types include standard regex patterns for header or body searches, size limits with < (less than) or > (greater than) operators, ? for checking the exit code of an external program (non-zero indicates match), $ for shell command substitution, and ! to invert the result of a condition.[24] By default, conditions apply to headers unless B is specified, and in scoring mode—enabled by appending numerical scores to condition lines (e.g., * condition # 100)—matches adjust a cumulative score stored in the $= variable rather than performing boolean tests.[24]
Actions specify the outcome when conditions match and can include forwarding with ! followed by an address, piping to a program with |, appending to a file with > or explicit file path, or nesting a block of sub-recipes with { and }.[24] Variables can be expanded in actions using $ notation for dynamic behavior.[24]
Recipes are evaluated sequentially from top to bottom in the configuration file, with processing halting after a delivering action (e.g., saving to a file or forwarding) unless the c flag enables fall-through to subsequent recipes.[24] Non-delivering actions, such as piping for analysis or nesting blocks, allow continuation to the next recipe regardless.[24] This flow ensures deterministic handling, with unmatched messages proceeding to the default mailbox if no final recipe applies.[24]
Practical Examples
Simple Filtering Rules
Simple filtering rules in procmail allow users to perform basic email sorting and processing using straightforward recipes, which consist of a colon line, optional conditions, and an action.[18] These rules are ideal for beginners and focus on single-condition matches to handle common tasks without complex logic. One common task is filing emails from a specific sender into a dedicated folder. For instance, to route all mail from "[email protected]" to a folder named "boss-mail", the following recipe can be used::0
* ^From.*boss@company\.com
boss-mail
:0
* ^From.*boss@company\.com
boss-mail
:0 c
* ^Subject:.*newsletter
! [email protected]
:0 c
* ^Subject:.*newsletter
! [email protected]
:0 B
* viagra
/dev/null
:0 B
* viagra
/dev/null
procmail -m .procmailrc < testmail, helping to avoid unintended actions on live mail.[1]
Complex Processing Scenarios
Procmail enables sophisticated mail processing through integrated recipes that combine conditional scoring, external program invocation, and header manipulation to handle multifaceted scenarios such as spam detection and automated responses. These setups often involve multiple interdependent rules, lockfiles for concurrency control, and piping to utilities like formail or sendmail, allowing users to implement production-grade filtering without external dependencies.[18]Scoring-Based Spam Filter
Procmail's scoring mechanism assigns numerical values to conditions, accumulating a total score that triggers actions when thresholds are met, facilitating nuanced spam detection beyond binary matches. For instance, a recipe might deduct points for trusted indicators like known senders while adding points for suspicious features such as attachments, culminating in forwarding high-scoring messages to a junk folder when score >=0. This approach leverages header and body analysis to weigh evidence probabilistically.[17] A representative scoring recipe initializes a base score and adjusts it based on specific patterns::0
* -5^0
* -2 ^0 ^From:.*trusted@domain\.com
* 10 ^0 ^Content-Type: (multipart/mixed|application/(octet-stream|pdf))
* 5 ^0 ^Subject:.*(viagra|lottery|urgent)
* 0 ^0
{
LOG = "Spam score: $SCORE - Filing as junk"
:0:
junk
}
:0
* -5^0
* -2 ^0 ^From:.*trusted@domain\.com
* 10 ^0 ^Content-Type: (multipart/mixed|application/(octet-stream|pdf))
* 5 ^0 ^Subject:.*(viagra|lottery|urgent)
* 0 ^0
{
LOG = "Spam score: $SCORE - Filing as junk"
:0:
junk
}
Auto-Reply Vacation Script
For automated out-of-office responses, procmail recipes can pipe messages to external programs while enforcing conditions to avoid loops and ensure atomicity via lockfiles, mimicking the vacation(1) utility. A typical setup checks for direct addressing, excludes daemons and prior replies, and uses a cache to limit responses per sender.[19] The following recipe, adapted from standard examples, uses a lockfile to serialize access and pipes to formail for reply generation::0 Whc: vacation.lock
* !^FROM_DAEMON
* !^X-Loop: $LOGNAME@domain\.com
* $^To:.*\<$LOGNAME\>
| (formail -rD 8192 [vacation](/page/Vacation).cache \
-A"X-Loop: $LOGNAME@domain\.com" ; \
cat [vacation](/page/Vacation).msg ) | $SENDMAIL -oi -t
:0 Whc: vacation.lock
* !^FROM_DAEMON
* !^X-Loop: $LOGNAME@domain\.com
* $^To:.*\<$LOGNAME\>
| (formail -rD 8192 [vacation](/page/Vacation).cache \
-A"X-Loop: $LOGNAME@domain\.com" ; \
cat [vacation](/page/Vacation).msg ) | $SENDMAIL -oi -t
Mailing List Handling
Procmail supports lightweight mailing list processing by extracting recipient lists from files and forwarding messages with modified headers to prevent loops or add metadata, often piping through formail for header insertion. This is useful for ad-hoc distribution without full list software, where incoming mail to a list address is redistributed to subscribers.[26] An example recipe for a list named "team" reads subscribers from a file and forwards with a custom Precedence header::0
* ^To: team@domain\.com
{
:0c
| formail -A "Precedence: bulk" \
-A "X-Mailing-List: team@domain\.com" \
| $SENDMAIL -oi `cat /path/to/subscribers.txt`
}
:0
* ^To: team@domain\.com
{
:0c
| formail -A "Precedence: bulk" \
-A "X-Mailing-List: team@domain\.com" \
| $SENDMAIL -oi `cat /path/to/subscribers.txt`
}
Debugging Tips for Complex Setups
Troubleshooting multilayered procmail configurations relies on enhanced logging and message inspection to trace recipe execution and variable states. Enabling verbose mode reveals condition evaluations and pipeline flows, while targeted logs pinpoint failures in scoring or forwarding.[27] To activate verbose output, setVERBOSE=yes at the top of .procmailrc, which logs detailed steps like matching conditions and score computations to the specified LOGFILE (e.g., LOGFILE=SCORE for SCORE or $MATCH without full verbosity. Unset LOGFILE to direct output to stderr for immediate console review during testing.[27][28]
Log analysis involves reviewing entries for patterns, such as unmatched conditions or lockfile deadlocks, often using grep for keywords like "executing" or "condition". Save suspect messages to temporary files with :0c /tmp/debug.msg for manual dissection with tools like formail -X to extract headers. Pipeline debugging employs tee, e.g., | formail ... | tee /tmp/pipe.out | sendmail, to capture intermediate content. These techniques, combined with abstract logging (LOGABSTRACT=all), facilitate iterative refinement of complex rules without disrupting live processing.[27]
Criticisms and Limitations
Security Concerns
Procmail has faced several security vulnerabilities over its lifetime, primarily due to its age and limited maintenance. The project has seen minimal maintenance since its last stable release (version 3.24) in March 2022, with distributions applying sporadic security patches thereafter, increasing the risk of unaddressed flaws in deployed versions.[12][29] A significant vulnerability, CVE-2017-16844, involves a heap-based buffer overflow in theloadbuf function of the formail utility within procmail version 3.22. This flaw allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service or potentially execute arbitrary code by processing a specially crafted email message.[30] Similarly, CVE-2014-3618 is another heap-based buffer overflow in the same formisc.c file of formail, enabling remote attackers to crash the application or execute arbitrary code via malformed email headers.[31] These issues have been addressed in distribution-provided versions through backported patches.
Historically, procmail has been susceptible to local privilege escalation exploits related to its configuration file handling. CVE-1999-0475 describes a race condition in the processing of .procmailrc files, allowing a local attacker to read arbitrary files accessible to the procmail process by exploiting the timing between permission checks and file access.[32] To mitigate such risks, procmail implements strict permission checks on the user's home directory and .procmailrc file, rejecting execution if the files are group-writable or exhibit other insecure permissions, a measure designed for added security paranoia.[33]
Another concern arises from procmail's support for piping email content to external programs in recipes, which can introduce shell injection risks if user-controlled inputs from email headers or bodies are not properly sanitized before being passed to shell commands.[34]
As of 2025, users are advised to employ only distribution-provided versions of procmail that include backported patches for known vulnerabilities, such as those from Debian or Red Hat, and to restrict invocation privileges by avoiding setuid configurations where possible to limit potential impact. As of 2025, Linux distributions like Debian continue to provide procmail packages (e.g., version 3.24+really3.22-5 in August 2025) with backported security patches, though upstream development remains dormant.[35][13]
Usability Issues
Procmail's configuration syntax, rooted in its design from the early 1990s, relies heavily on single-letter flags and regular expression-based conditions, which pose significant challenges for users unfamiliar with Unix conventions. Recipes begin with a colon-zero construct followed by optional flags such asc for copying mail, f for forcing file creation, h for header-only operations, H for header and body searches, w to wait for program completion, and many others, each modifying behavior in subtle ways that require consulting documentation for recall and application.[1] Conditions prefixed with an asterisk employ egrep-compatible regular expressions to match headers or body content, often demanding precise pattern crafting that can be error-prone and difficult to debug without expertise in regex syntax.[36] This terse, flag-driven approach, while powerful for advanced scripting, overwhelms non-experts, as composing even basic recipes from scratch demands deep familiarity with shell-like substitutions and scoring mechanisms to avoid unintended mail loss or loops.[25]
The absence of native support for modern email protocols exacerbates procmail's usability limitations, particularly in environments relying on IMAP or webmail interfaces. Procmail functions primarily as a local mail delivery agent, writing to files in mbox or Maildir formats that an IMAP server must subsequently index, rather than interacting directly with IMAP servers for delivery or folder management.[37] This indirect integration requires additional configuration layers, such as coordinating with tools like Dovecot or Cyrus IMAP, leading to maintenance burdens like ensuring lockfile compatibility and handling concurrent access issues.[37] Similarly, procmail lacks built-in mechanisms for seamless webmail integration, forcing users to rely on external scripts or MTAs for bridging to services like Roundcube or Outlook Web Access, which often results in fragmented workflows and increased setup complexity.[38]
Debugging procmail configurations presents further hurdles due to its reliance on cryptic, verbose logging without user-friendly simulation tools. While the VERBOSE variable enables extended diagnostics in the LOGFILE, outputs consist of timestamped entries detailing recipe matches, shell spawns, and errors in a raw, unformatted style that mixes execution traces with regex evaluations, making it arduous to isolate issues like failed conditions or lock contention.[1] For instance, log entries distinguish direct command execution from shell-invoked ones via subtle formatting differences, but interpreting these requires manual cross-referencing with recipe lines, often leading to prolonged trial-and-error cycles.[27] Procmail provides no built-in simulator or dry-run mode to test recipes against sample messages without risking actual delivery, compelling users to deploy temporary logging setups or external tools like formail for message reconstruction, which adds overhead and potential for oversight.[36]
Procmail's limited development since its 2022 release (version 3.24) has left it incompatible with contemporary email standards, notably complicating spam handling through the lack of native DKIM support. Procmail predates DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), introduced in 2007, and cannot natively verify or generate signatures, requiring users to pipe messages through external utilities like OpenDKIM for validation, which disrupts recipe flow and increases vulnerability to forged headers.[11] This stasis extends to other post-2007 protocols, forcing workarounds that burden administrators with custom integrations and heighten the risk of misconfigured spam filters in modern ecosystems dominated by authenticated email.[37]